Asher, a 16-year veteran of the police force until his firing over the beating of Melvin Jones III caught on video in 2009, was led out of a courtroom in Chicopee District Court on Wednesday against a backdrop of grim police faces.

Judge Maureen Walsh opted to sentence Asher, 40, at the higher end of sentencing guidelines despite his defense lawyer’s pitch for probation and a term of home confinement.

Given the number of arrests Asher has made in the city and the sensational nature of the case, the Hampden County Jail in Ludlow seemed and unlikely – and potentially unsafe – spot for Asher to serve his time.

David A. Lanoie, superintendent of the medium-security campus in Franklin County, on Thursday said that Asher was undergoing the same orientation and evaluation as every other new inmate that enters the facility. He will receive a security classification in about a week, Lanoie said.

“There are twin concerns. You have to assess the inmate and you want to understand the inmate’s potential security risks. In this particular case we also have to be concerned about his safety, which we will,” Lanoie said.

The facility is comprised of a 125-year-old building and a new one built in 2008. It currently houses about 240 inmates.

Lanoie said he has very few inmates from the Greater Springfield area – unlike Ludlow and even the Hampshire County jail, where Sheriff Robert J. Garvey said he has about 80 with Springfield addresses.

In addition, Jones is being held in the Ludlow jail awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges.

Lanoie said jail officials determine appropriate housing assignments based on a set of nationally accepted criteria that allows for some flexibility based on the inmate.

“There’s a standard approach but we have to be flexible,” he said, adding that administrative segregation away from the general population is an option for high-risk inmates.